Galactic: Jammys Afterparty Recap

We’d like to welcome longtime Glide contributor Chad Berndtson to the Hidden Track team. I’ve long admired Chad’s writing (no homo), so this is a big thrill for me. Here’s Chad’s thoughts on the Galactic show last night:

What, no Chevy Chase to sing Fiyo on the Bayou? No 30-guest parade sufficient to make Times Square look like a regular night at JazzFest? Come on now!

Nah, we keed: Galactic lit up B.B. King’s for the Jammys afterparty, and it was a strong show by Jammys standards and a pretty decent throwdown by Galactic standards. Leading off with Bongo the Dog and stretching about two hours and 20 minutes, some of the funktastic quintet appeared a little tired—Ben Ellman’s sax work felt unusually reigned in, and he looked ready to call it a night—but they brought more than enough heat to do the job and send everybody home a-boppin’ after a tight, top-flight, very emotional Jammy Awards. (Look for a play-by-play on the Track today, and some color commentary on Glide soon.)

It took a while to corral—with the Jammys afterparty, things get rolling more or less on New Orleans time anyway—but soon a near-capacity crowd was amply fired, and by 1:30 a.m. Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na and his little brother were proving the big reasons why the ensemble held so much sway, sitting in for seven different songs and stoking the crowd long past its tipping point (or, its bedtime).

Other cameos were at a minimum, but the novelty of seeing eight-year-old Japanese guitar phenom Yuto Miyazawa shred Sabbath’s Crazy Train with Stanton Moore’s note-perfect, hard-punching drumwork behind him was a gas. A scorching solo from ubiquitous saxman Cheme Gastelum two songs later was similarly electrifying—why didn’t he play with the band longer?—and the lovely Grace Potter emerged late in the second hour for Whole Lotta Love. Several additional Jammys holdovers–we spotted photographer Danny Clinch, Tea Leaf Green’s Trevor Garrod, and many others right til the end—also made the rounds, tired smiles aplenty to cork a very involving night. Now, how do they top themselves next year?

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2 Responses

  1. here’s who i saw at BB kings during Galactic:

    jon fishman
    marc brownstein
    mike gordon
    trevor garrod
    mike greenhaus
    jake cinninger
    steve bernstein

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